This invention relates to an interior trim component for a motor vehicle.
Hard interior automotive trim such as door panels, instrument panels, steering column covers, glove box doors, knee bolsters, consoles, pillar post covers,""seat backs, speaker grilles, vent grilles, mirror housings, and HVAC housings are often produced by injection molding the more expensive resins, such as ABS or PC/ABS. Hard appearance surface parts are used in many small cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles.
It is desirable to use lower cost polyolefins in these applications. Unfortunately, these materials have relatively soft surfaces, which are prone to scuff, mar and scratch damage. Thus, to maintain the aesthetic appearance of these visible internal components when polyolefin materials are used, the polyolefins must be painted to provide a more durable surface. This adds significant cost and requires surface treatment with an adhesion promoter in order to provide good adhesion between the paint and the polymer. Even then, inconsistent paint adhesion remains a problem.
The disadvantages of the prior art may be overcome by providing an interior trim component for an automobile comprising a structure formed from at least one polyolefin material and reinforcement particles dispersed within the at least one polyolefin material. The reinforcement particles comprise less than or equal to 10% of a total volume of the rigid structure. At least 40% of the reinforcement particles have a thickness less than about 50 nanometers. The interior trim component is constructed and arranged to be devoid of any decorative coating layer disposed thereon in its final finished form for installation into a vehicle so that the trim component is provided with an unpainted visible surface finish.
More preferably, at least 50% of the reinforcement particles have a thickness less that 20 nanometers. In addition it is preferable for at least 99% of the particles to have a thickness of less than 30 nanometers.
Also in accordance with the invention, an interior trim component is preferably loaded with nanoparticles in amounts of 3-5% of the total volume of a polyolefin interior trim part, wherein over 40% of the particles are less than about 50 nanometers in thickness, and thereby enable the part to withstand marring and scuffing (known as the xe2x80x9cmar thresholdxe2x80x9d). It is even more preferred that the interior trim component be loaded with nanoparticles in amounts of 3-7% of the total volume of a polyolefin interior trim part, wherein over 50% of the particles are less than about 20 nanometers in thickness, Thus, the mar threshold of a polyolefin interior trim part can be more than doubled by adding nanoparticles in accordance with the present invention.